Men start taking advantage of nursing shortage

September 6th, 2013 by Philip Brasor & Masako Tsubuku

Two posts ago we talked about how difficult it is for men to become flight attendants in Japan, where the job is still considered women’s work. However, another occupation that in the past was solely associated with women, nursing, is now openly encouraging male applicants, and the men are signing up. In the West, of course, there have been male nurses for decades, but because of tenacious gender roles and the fact that nursing is still a poorly paid position, Japanese men until recently have never tried to break into the field. That’s changing.

Web ad for Komatsu Nursing School in Ichikawa Prefecture with representative gender ratio

According to health ministry surveys, there were 63,000 male nurses working in Japan in 2012, which is two-and-a-half times the number ten years ago and six times the number 20 years ago. Nevertheless, this number only accounts for 6.2 percent of all the nurses in Japan. It is still overwhelmingly considered a woman’s job, but the numbers are increasing. Asahi Shimbun reports that 17 percent of the 112 students who enrolled last spring at a nursing school in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, were male. The portion of men among the new class was even larger at a nursing school in Osaka City — 28 out of 118.

What’s significant, however, isn’t the portion, but the age range. The youngest are just out of high school or college, while the oldest is in his mid-40s. Since nursing schools are essentially technical schools (senmon gakko), they don’t follow the archaic university custom of effectively limiting enrollment to recent high school graduates, and many men who want to change career paths are opting for nursing.

One 31-year-old student at the Atsugi school told Asahi that he worked in the administrative department at a preparatory school after graduating from university, but he was always a contract worker and his salary never rose the whole time he worked there. Now that he’s married and has a child, he wants something more stable and potentially lucrative.

A 22-year-old fourth-year student at the Osaka school, which opened in 2010, thus making him a future alumnus of the school’s first class, said he originally wanted to be a paramedic, but his mother suggested nursing because she had read that local governments were cutting budgets for ambulance service. He’s already been offered a full-time job at a general hospital in Osaka.

Almost all nurses are hired as full-time regular employees with benefits, because the demand for nurses remains high. In 2013, the health ministry estimated a nationwide nursing shortage of 42,000. The projection for 2014 is 30,000, which takes into consideration the number of people who will be graduating from nursing schools next year, though it doesn’t necessarily factor in turnover, which is high.

The annual turnover rate nationwide is 10.9 percent, but in major cities, where most nurses work, it’s over 14 percent. The reasons are obvious: long and late hours, demanding work conditions and pay that many don’t think is fair compensation. Almost all nurses are women, and when they get married or have children they often decide to quit the business altogether.

The chief nurse at a hospital in Otaru, Hokkaido — a woman, it should be noted — told the Asahi that her department was actively recruiting male nurses because they are perceived as looking at the occupation in the long term, as a real career, as if women didn’t. “We can reduce turnover,” she said. The health ministry says that there are 550,000 “hidden nurses” in Japan, meaning women with nursing licenses who no longer work as nurses.

According to the National Personnel Authority, the average monthly pay for a 37-year-old nurse in Japan is ¥346,000, while that of a 35-year-old general office worker is ¥320,000, so actually the pay is slightly above average. Moreover, the Japan Nursing Association says that pay for nurses were not adversely affected by the recession five years ago. Starting salaries tend to be pegged to educational level: though all nurses must go to nursing school and pass a test, those who went to university beforehand usually start at higher salaries than those who are only high school graduates.

This is another area where men have the advantage. Men who enter nursing now tend to be college graduates, while women usually go to nursing school right out of high school, or even junior high school. Traditionally, many women became nurses by going to high schools with nursing programs. Another change that has made nursing more attractive is lighter work loads. In 2006 the health ministry implemented guidelines that mandated one nurse per seven patients in a hospital. Previously, the ratio was one to ten.

Yen for Living is produced by Philip Brasor, a freelance writer-for-hire, and Masako Tsubuku, a freelance translator and interpreter. They are currently working together on a book about Japanese housing that will probably never be finished. In the meantime they have their own blog on the subject: Cat Foreheads & Rabbit Hutches. You can read more by Philip at philipbrasor.com.

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